Naming
by whitetigerwolf
Summary: The real reason Catherine chose to name her Longwing companion Lily. One-Shot. Complete.


**I Do Not Own Temeraire or Harry Potter**

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Catherine Harcourt gulped nervously as she watched the egg move.

It was early, by five years. And Catherine wasn't sure she was ready for the responsibility yet, but she had no choice now.

The longwing was hatching.

As she waited, she souddenly realized hse had no idea what to name it, be it male or female.

She supposed, if it was a male, she'd name it after her grandfather. Dillon Harcourt was an old man when her father left her with him after her mother's death. And for seven years, he'd done his best to raise her. But he knew he was old.

And life as a smuggler was dangerous. Yet he had to continue to work to support her. The first seven years of her life had been spent aboard the small ship he used to sneak across the chanal and back.

Being a smuggler, her grandfather knew a lot of things regular, law-abiding people did not. One of the things he knew was that the Aerial Corps accepted children as young as seven into thier ranks.

He also knew they allowed women to join them.

The day she turned seven, he took her to the nearest convert. After speaking to the commanding officer, he'd taken her to a seperate room. He'd knelt down and looked her in the eye, and she still remembered the tears she could see falling down his cheeks, to be lost in his snow white beard.

"I love you," he told her then. "More than anything else in this world. But I can no longer take care of you," he had explained softly. Before she could protest, he explained, "I'm sick Cat. The doctor's didn't think I'd make it this long. But I fought it, fought it until I knew. You'll be taken care of here. You'll grow strong, just like your mother. I'm sorry I won't be there to see it."

"I love you too grandpa," she'd said, hugging him. Standing back, she'd told him, "I'll make you proud."

He smiled at her. "I know you will." Leaning down, he'd kissed her forehead, before leaving the room.

It was the last she saw him. She was told he died a week later, due to a sickness of the lungs.

Since then, she'd strove to uphold her word to him, to make him proud of her. To prove that her father was wrong to leave her with him, yet keep her brother.

The dragon pushing out of it's shell pulled her from her thoughts.

The longwing was small, though it's wings were already large for it's body. Stepping forward, she ased, "May I put this on you?" holding out the harness for the dragonet to sniff.

"Why?" the dragon asked, it's feminine voice giving away it's gender as female.

"So that you can then eat," Cathrine said, already fond of the dragon.

"Then you may," the dragon said happily. And as she affixed the harness, the dragon asked, "What is your name?"

She didn't hesitate when she said, "Catherine Harcourt."

"What's my name?"

As Catherine answered she thought about her mother, the woman who, if she had been told correctly died protecting her and her brother from a madman.

"Lily."

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 **This One-Shot came about as I was working out ideas for a HP/Temeraire story. And while this is not that story, as it would be multi-chaptered and would feature a Harry Potter/Catherine Harcourt pairing, it features ideas that filtered through my head from brainstorming that story. This story features Catherine as FemHarry. And the basic premis is that Catherine was the boy-who-liveed's twin. But she was also a squib. Lily kept her, but James didn't want to because of her being a squib, after the attack, and Lily's death, he had no reason to keep her, and gave her to her muggle grandfather to raise. And obviously, Lily's maiden name would have been Harcourt. Her twin was supposed to be the Boy-Who-Lived, so there no WBWL in this little tale.**

 **Obviously that makes it AU, as in the series, Catherine's father was an Aviator. And I made Catherine FemHarry in my head, even though it's not really mentioned in story.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed.**

 **Please Review and Check Out the Challenges in My Forums (Link on Profile) and the Stories I have for Adoption Under the Title, Please Adopt Me!**


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